Battlefield 5's battle royale mode won't be live until spring 2019

EA laid out the game's 'live service' schedule, and the Firestorm mode is a ways off.

Electronic Arts said today that Battlefield 5's "Firestorm" battle royale mode won't be available until the spring of 2019, several months after the game is released.

EA revealed the wait in an update that lays out Battlefield 5's "live service journey through the Second World War," which will begin in December with Overture. The first chapter in the game's Tides of War updates will feature a new tank-focused map called Panzerstorm, The Last Tiger single-player mission, and the addition of a practice range.

In January comes Lightning Strikes, "with a focus on vehicle warfare and rapid infantry movement." It will bring two new modes to the game and Combined Arms, a series of co-op missions across multiple maps. Then in March, EA will roll out Trial By Fire, adding a map set in Greece and—finally—the Firestorm mode.

A date for Firestorm hasn't actually been set, however: The update says only that the battle royale mode will become available "during spring."

We knew that Firestorm wouldn't be live when Battlefield 5 launched, but the multi-month wait is a little surprising. For all the noise that EA is making about War Stories and new multiplayer modes, battle royale is what's hot right now, and launching a multiplayer shooter without it has, in a very short amount of time, become a risky move. Then again, Battlefield has gotten along fine with its usual modes for some time, and maybe the change of pace will draw players who are burnt out on Blackout and PUBG.